News Digest - October 2018

WOTR organised a two-day international consultation of experts to discuss the impacts of this 1.5 C global temperature rise on Indian agriculture, particularly in semi-arid areas that are dependent heavily on the monsoons. The conference considered the implications of climate change on the following sectors: Landuse and Landcover changes, Water Resources, Agriculture Production Systems and Climate Financial Services. Read more

ASSAR SPOTLIGHT Sept 2018

In September issue of Spotlight, our researcher Arjuna Srinidhi ‘ASSAR’s contribution to WOTR as a practitioner organisation’ article talks about the biggest contribution of the ASSAR project. Arshi Yaduvanshi, in ‘Building capacity dissolves differences. It irons out inequalities’ describes her journey with ASSAR and how it provided her the opportunity to work on ‘Research into Use (RiU)’. In ‘Learning about ecosystem dynamics, and becoming friends in the process’, Vijayasekaran Duraisamy narrates his learning experience at the ASSAR LULC workshop. The ASSAR spotlight provides a web link to WOTR’s short film ‘Under the Blazing Sun’ focusing on heat stress. It also gives web links to key ‘ASSAR Outputs’. Read more

The Watershed Organisation Trust (WOTR) has always been a multi-sectoral organisation, committed to learning and improvising, so as to respond to local needs. The key ‘learning’ for us, has been that climate change adaptation needs to be addressed at multiple levels, each requiring a different strategy depending on the stakeholder. Building capacities to do just this was the biggest contribution of the Adaptation at Scale in Semi-Arid Regions (ASSAR) project. Read more

My ASSAR journey began with the July 2017 Winter School at CSAG (Climate Systems Analysis Group) at the University of Cape Town. Being a hydrometeorologist, I was always inclined towards the technical side of the research, but at the Winter School I learnt to connect non-technical aspects (mapping of vulnerability, frameworks of adaptation, policy planning) with technical aspects. Read more

The LULC workshop in Bangalore provided me an opportunity to learn new methods in remote sensing and data processing and enabled me to interact with members of ASSAR’s cross-regional teams. This enhanced my understanding of the project’s many themes and provided new opportunities for collaborative work. The “R” software training helped a lot with my regional research article and cross-regional study. Read more

The International Consultation organised by WOTR received news coverage by The Times of India Pune. This consultation was focused on the four thematic areas– Land Use Land Cover (LULC), Water, Agriculture and Climate Financial Services. The implications of rising temperatures and heightened weather variability in the semi-arid regions of India were discussed. Read more

The Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5ºC was approved by the IPCC on 6th October in Incheon, Republic of Korea. It is becoming increasingly apparent that access to water and growing food could become harder leading to a food crisis in Asia. In this context, Watershed Organisation Trust (WOTR) organized an international consultation on October 3-4, 2018 in Pune. The event brought together experts from research institutes including Agricultural research institutes, international universities, relevant department in Government of India and Maharashtra, NGOs and farmers. While the IPCC report looks at the science-policy interface, the WOTR consultation attempts to connect the science and policy interfaces to practice (or implementation). Read more

Heat-related deaths and illness are on the rise in India. With summertime highs hitting 45° Celsius in rural areas, urgent action is needed to protect vulnerable populations. The blog is written by Dipak Zade and Brendon Bosworth. Read more

People of seven villages now have access to safe and clean drinking water. SBI Mutual Fund funded project is providing clean water to the population of more than 6,000 people spread across two blocks: Parner and Akole in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra. Livinguard’s unique filters have been installed in these villages. Watch it here

My School's Kitchen is a short film on non-polluting way of cooking food. 21 ‘Solar Parabolic Cookers’ were installed in government schools in Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra. The film narrates the experiences of students, teachers and Anganwadi staff with these Solar Parabolic Cookers. Watch it here

People of seven villages now have access to safe and clean drinking water. SBI Mutual Fund funded project is providing clean water to the population of more than 6,000 people spread across two blocks: Parner and Akole in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra. Livinguard’s unique filters have been installed in these villages. Watch it here

WOTRian of the month

Ujwala Kavthekar is associated with WOTR since 2002. She is currently working as ‘Senior Officer-Health and Women Development’ in Aurangabad RRC and handling health projects of WOTR and Sampada Trust. Read more

Latest Publications

Since the lockdown was implemented on March 24, 2020, WOTR has been working at the frontlines, across seven states in India, being a source of support for the rural communities, especially farmers in these difficult times. We present to you a snapshot of our work — the relief measures we are undertaking on the ground to arrest the losses incurred by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Every year March 22 is observed as World Water Day as a means of focusing attention on the importance of water and advocating for the sustainable management of water resources. This year the theme for the day is " Water and Climate Change" and we all know how these two are inextricably linked.

We are happy to inform you that an article by our Senior Researchers, Arjuna Srinidhi and Divya Nazareth, titled 'Krushi Sanskritit Rujtey Plastic Sanskriti' was included in a special compendium titled 'Plastic Bandiche Shivdhanushya’ (Banning plastic: A herculean task).